As Irish Catholic Church Heads Towards Collapse, Donohue Tries to Defend US Pedophile Priests, by Bridgette P. Lavictoire, Lez Get Real, February 15, 2011

As Irish Catholic Church Heads Towards Collapse, Donohue Tries to Defend US Pedophile Priests

By Bridgette P. Lavictoire
Lez Get Real
February 15, 2011

http://lezgetreal.com/2011/02/as-irish-catholic-church-heads-towards-collapse-donohue-tries-to-defend-us-pedophile-priests/

A confidential report issued by the Church to Pope Benedict warns that the Irish Catholic Church is on the verge of collapse. The report states that the Church must given laymen and women a greater say in decision making, and warns that, if it does not, the Irish Catholic Church has about ten years before it completely loses its relevancy in Irish life. The report comes after an investigator examined the state of the Irish Catholic Church following the Murphy and Ryan reports into child sexual abuse by various clergy. Boston archbishop Cardinal Sean O'Malley stated not long ago that Ireland was at risk of "becoming like other European countries" where religion is marginalized in society.

The report was originally cited by the New York Times.

The Association of Catholic Priests says that it is ready to campaign for radical change, but is apprehensive that this would be viewed as "a new clericalism," and largely rejected. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church in America is trying to push back against the latest scandal. Catholic League president Bill Donohue attacked the New York Times today, specifically against their editorial about the recent revelations that there were continuing cases of sexual abuse in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

According to him, the editorial states "The Roman Catholic Church in this country has promised accountability and justice for children sexually abused by priests. We fear it has a long way to go."

Of course, Donohue whines unconvincingly:

Wrong: no religious or secular institution in the U.S. today has a better record than the Catholic Church. To wit: from 2005 to 2009 (the last year data are available), the average number of credible accusations made against a priest for the sexual abuse of a minor is 8.6; in 2009, the number was six (out of more than 40,000).

He does not mention who determines what credible is. The Roman Catholic Church routinely dismisses what may be seen as credible evidence by others in order to protect itself.

At the end of his diatribe, he states:

Finally, the Times needs to put up or shut up: if it has evidence that today's Philadelphia Archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, is wrong to say that "there are no archdiocesan priests in ministry today who have an admitted or established allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against them," then it should say so.

The evidence is in the grand jury report. They said that they could not indict the rest due to the statute of limitations expiring, but that they were still in positions that brought them into contact with children. In fact, Donohue has the gall to state:

The first grand jury report was issued in 2005 and not a single priest was indicted. The Philadelphia prosecutors blamed an "inadequate" state law for coming up empty. The "inadequate" law was an elementary civil liberty called the statute of limitations.

Actually, they came up with a variety of things, most of which led to civil suits. Just because the priests were not indicted does not mean that there was not credible evidence that they had done wrong. Often times, the laws do not protect the children because abuse might not surface until long after the statute of limitations has expired.

He also complained:

The grand jury has now smeared the previous Philadelphia Archbishop, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, with baseless charges, being forced to admit that "we cannot conclude a successful prosecution can be brought against the cardinal."

Actually, the reason why they cannot charge the Cardinal is because the Church does such a wonderful job of hiding their shame. Often times, the higher clergy have done a lot of dismissing charges as being baseless or claimed that they were being falsely accused and never once been willing to take a look at whether or not these incidents occurred. It will not be surprising to see Donohue claim that the New York Times is making the whole thing up in order to attack the Church. That is, after all, his normal procedure.